The present invention generally relates to a toe piece of type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,685,696, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated herein. This toe piece as compared to other known toe pieces of a similar kind, affords the advantage of exhibiting an improved restoring behavior because the friction characteristics of the device are more favorable. This and other toe pieces have the disadvantage that they include a relatively large number of internal parts, the manufacture of which is neither simple nor inexpensive. In addition, these parts are susceptible to icing, particularly owing to the presence of a compression spring acting thereon.
For this reason, it is an object of the present invention to improve and design a toe piece of the type heretofore described, and to provide a toe piece which is structurally simple, can be made at low cost, and will be effective and reliable in operation, particularly with respect to its susceptibility to icing.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a toe piece as defined above, which toe piece includes fewer and less complicated components than toe pieces known heretofore.